Senior Director, AI Engineering -Agentic AI Platform(Remote Eligible)

Capital One Group; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 343,000 - 392,000; Full time

Job summary

Capital One is seeking an experienced AI engineering leader to drive the design, development, and deployment of foundation models and AI systems. You will oversee model training, inference, governance, and observability while guiding the technical vision and multi‑year roadmap across enterprise AI applications.

You will attract and develop top AI talent, collaborate with cross‑functional teams, and champion responsible AI practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree with extensive AI/ML experience.
• At least 5 years of people leadership experience.
• Experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms.
• Strong communication and leadership abilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI engineering teams across foundation models, training, inference, and governance.
• Oversee design, deployment, testing, and support of AI software components.
• Shape multi‑year roadmaps for scalable, compliant AI systems.
• Drive responsible AI practices and cross‑functional collaboration across risk, data, and product teams.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop AI talent and leaders.

Skills

Leadership

AI/ML design

Foundation models

Optimization of AI systems

Mentoring & coaching

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science / AI / EE / CE or related fields

Master's Degree in Computer Science / AI / EE / CE or related fields

Tools

AWS Ultraclusters

Huggingface

PyTorch

VectorDBs

Guardrails

Job description

Team Description:

The Intelligent Foundations and Experiences (IFX) team is at the center of bringing our vision for AI at Capital One to life. We work hand‑in‑hand with our partners across the company to advance the state of the art in science and AI engineering, and we build and deploy proprietary solutions that are central to our business and deliver value to millions of customers. Our AI models and platforms empower teams across Capital One to enhance their products with the transformative power of AI, in responsible and scalable ways for the highest leverage impact.

What You’ll Do:

• Partner with a cross-functional team of engineers, research scientists, technical program managers, and product managers to deliver AI-powered products that change how our associates work and how our customers interact with Capital One.
• Oversee the design, development, testing, deployment, and support AI software components including foundation model training, large language model inference, similarity search, guardrails, model evaluation, experimentation, governance, and observability, etc.
• Make high judgment build‑vs‑buy decisions across a broad stack of Open Source and SaaS AI technologies such as AWS Ultraclusters, Huggingface, VectorDBs, PyTorch, and more.
• Invent and introduce state‑of‑the‑art foundation model optimization techniques to improve the performance — scalability, cost, latency, throughput — of large scale production AI systems.
• Contribute to the technical vision and the long term roadmap of foundational AI systems at Capital One.
• Attract and retain top talent in the AI industry and nurture personal and professional development for your team. Foster a culture of learning and staying abreast of the state‑of‑the‑art in AI.
• Define and drive enterprise‑wide AI strategy, aligning product, research, risk, and data organizations around shared technical and ethical principles
• Establish a multi‑year roadmap for scalable, reliable, and compliant AI systems that serve as shared infrastructure across the enterprise
• Champion Responsible‑AI, ensuring ethical, transparent and explainable model practices are embedded in all lines of business
• Oversee the scaling of AI operations - including model lifecycle management, observability, and cost efficiency - across hundreds of production use cases

The Ideal Candidate:

• You love to build systems, take pride in the quality of your work, and also share our passion to do the right thing. You want to work on problems that will help change banking for good
• Passion for staying abreast of the latest research, and an ability to intuitively understand scientific publications and judiciously apply novel techniques in production
• You get fulfillment from empowering others to achieve their potential and you actively drive professional development through mentoring and coaching. You are hands‑on when necessary and lead by example
• You adapt quickly and thrive on bringing clarity to big, undefined problems. You love asking questions and digging deep to uncover the root of problems and can articulate your findings concisely with clarity. You have the courage to share new ideas even when they are unproven
• You are deeply Technical. You possess a strong foundation in engineering and mathematics, and your expertise in hardware, software, and AI enables you to see and exploit optimization opportunities that others miss
• You are a resilient trailblazer who can forge new paths to achieve business goals when the route is unknown

Capital One is open to hiring a Remote or Hybrid Employee for this opportunity. If the role is designated as Hybrid, you are expected to adhere to Capital One's hybrid policy regarding required on‑site presence at your designated office location. If the role is designated as Remote, you are expected to adhere to Capital One's Remote Worker Expectations

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields plus at least 10 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies, or a Master's degree in Computer Science, AI, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related fields plus at least 8 years of experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies
• At least 5 years of people leadership experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• 7+ years of experience managing and leading an engineering team
• 8+ years of experience deploying scalable and responsible AI solutions on cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or equivalent private cloud)
• Experience developing AI and ML algorithms or technologies (e.g. LLM Inference, Similarity Search and VectorDBs, Guardrails, Memory) using Python, C++, C#, Java, CUDA, or Golang
• Experience in building agentic AI systems and agentic workflows
• Passion for staying abreast of the latest AI research and AI systems, and judiciously apply novel techniques in production
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex AI concepts to peers
• Demonstrated experience leading leaders and multiple AI engineering organizations across product, platform and applied research domains
• Proven success in building enterprise‑scale AI platforms and capabilities serving diverse business lines and customer use cases
• Ability to influence executive leadership on AI investment strategy,organizational design, and risk management priorities
• Experience establishing external partnerships or thought leadership presence in AI industry, academia, or open‑source communities
• Experience right‑sizing models, instance counts, and hardware types given requirements (e.g., context length, token inputs, token outputs)

Capital One will consider sponsoring a new qualified applicant for employment authorization for this position.

The minimum and maximum full‑time annual salaries for this role are listed below, by location. Please note that this salary information is solely for candidates hired to perform work within one of these locations, and refers to the amount Capital One is willing to pay at the time of this posting. Salaries for part‑time roles will be prorated based upon the agreed upon number of hours to be regularly worked.

Remote (Regardless of Location): $286,200 - $326,700 for Sr. Director, AI EngineerCambridge, MA: $314,800 - $359,300 for Sr. Director, AI EngineerMcLean, VA: $314,800 - $359,300 for Sr. Director, AI EngineerNew York, NY: $343,400 - $392,000 for Sr. Director, AI EngineerSan Francisco, CA: $343,400 - $392,000 for Sr. Director, AI EngineerSan Jose, CA: $343,400 - $392,000 for Sr. Director, AI Engineer

Candidates hired to work in other locations will be subject to the pay range associated with that location, and the actual annualized salary amount offered to any candidate at the time of hire will be reflected solely in the candidate’s offer letter.

This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es) and/or long term incentives (LTI). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.

Capital One offers a comprehensive, competitive, and inclusive set of health, financial and other benefits that support your total well‑being. Learn more at the Capital One Careers website

This role is expected to accept applications for a minimum of 5 business days.No agencies please.

Capital One is an equal opportunity employer (EOE, including disability/vet) committed to non‑discrimination in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Capital One promotes a drug‑free workplace. Capital One will consider for employment qualified applicants with a criminal history in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable laws regarding criminal background inquiries, including, to the extent applicable, Article 23‑A of the New York Correction Law; San Francisco, California Police Code Article 49, Sections 4901‑4920; New York City’s Fair Chance Act; Philadelphia’s Fair Criminal Records Screening Act; and other applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding criminal background inquiries.

Recruiting Accommodation: [e-mail]

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Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).